Tag : bauta

The weather over here on the other side of the mountains is so different from what you all experience in the Lower Mainland. Where we live in Lillooet, we only get an average of 13 inches of precipitation a year, and when it does rain everything drys out so quickly.

It’s been an interesting season for me. Unexpected challenges and moments of deep satisfaction have marked my days. I’m new to growing food. The novelty of walking into my kitchen and seeing the countertop overflowing with garden fresh is still a wonder. The learning curve has felt steep, but thanks

My second Friday visit was with Roland at Rivendell Farm just down the road from Elemental Farm. Roland has been farming here for 3 years and as I pulled up to his Pick Your Own Farm I knew he was a farmer I would like – long, pristine, immaculately weed-free

Friday, at first, was meant to be an open day where I could do some exploring and touristing, but I also anticipated some farm visits – and that is what I got! For the morning I schedules myself to visit Bart and Kate at Elemental Farm and then had plans

Alright, and then on to Thursday…Thursday was the day I would start visiting farms to talk with people in their fields. While everyone seemed interested in the topic of seed security, they were most interested in asking more seed-growing specific questions. I kept telling people I wasn’t really here to

Ok, Finally onto Tuesday. Now in all reality, most of Tuesday was driving as I headed up to Dawson City with Katelyn Friendship of the AICBR. It was an amazing drive which had us go through all sorts of weather – and not a single wild animal spotting! We did

After my meeting with the EMR seed library I met with Matt Ball and Brad Barton, Agrologists with the Agriculture Branch. I was looking forward to my talk with them to see what opportunities for partnership there may be here in Yukon. Especially if there is opportunity to build on

OK, let’s see if I can get caught up a bit here! It’s Wednesday evening and I still have stuff from Monday to write about… So, after the Food Network meeting on Monday I headed to the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Resources (EMR) which houses the Agriculture Branch. I

On Monday things picked up a bit and I had some great conversations with a bunch of folks! Here is the summary: After another good night’s sleep I met Katelyn Friendship at the AICBR office only a few blocks from my hostel. It sure has been great to walk to

Chris here again. Well, so far Whitehorse is awesome and I’m not coming back to Vancouver. OK, maybe that is a bit extreme, but so far it is very lovely. I started Sunday by sleeping in – which I rarely get the chance to do in Vancouver, then got right

Today I (Chris Thoreau) arrived in Whitehorse on the first of 8 days visiting the Yukon to talk and learn about seed in Yukon communities. The goal of the trip, I suppose, is to help Yukon communities determine how to integrate seed into their community food security initiatives. I will

My main seed saving project for this mentorship is a parsnip crop. I planted them later than they ideally should’ve been planted, but have been fussing over them ever since, and once in a while checking in with David for feedback, including his farm visit back a few months ago

So far this season, seed saving has not come particularly naturally to our regular farming practices and systems, but it does generally feel like a great contribution our ability to farm in the holistic way that we aspire to. By taking seed saving into consideration, we pay greater attention to